Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (2020)

Kouichi "Yui" Sakura or known by his nickname, "Cherry" (an English translation of his surname) is a shy boy who has trouble communicating with people. He only writes haiku poems to express his feelings. Yuki, named online as "Smile", also has the same problem as Cherry. She is obsessed with being an online influencer.

Both of them go to the large shopping mall named "Oda Nouvelle Mall" in their town. Cherry supervises the elderly Mr. Fujiyama, who has been looking at an album with a beautiful girl next to a radio station on it titled "YAMAZAKURA", reads several haiku around outside of the mall. Cherry tries to catch Mr. Fujiyama's attention and they go to the mall. Meanwhile, in the mall, Yuki starts doing online videos of herself with cute things happening at the mall. A boy named Japan gets scammed by the gacha machine with a fake Hikarun figurine and throws a tantrum about it. His partner Beaver steals the cutout of Hikarun in order to please Japan but ends up attracting the attention of the security guards and Motopuri, the mall's manager. Motopuri pursues Beaver while he causes chaos throughout the mall. He bumps into Cherry and Yuki, who both end up switching up their smartphones. As Cherry and Yuki get back up, her mask accidentally falls off, exposing her braces to Cherry, who cluelessly eavesdrops on her and says "Braces". She runs away from him and storms out of the mall, embarrassed. Beaver ends up severing the head of the Hikarun cutout in the process before Motopuri tries to subdue him. Cherry and Mr. Fujiyama return to a place the former works at, a care center for the elderly in the mall. Mr. Fujiyama is asked by workers there whether he found the record for the album he keeps looking at but walks away, indicating that he never found it. Mr. Fujiyama angrily recites a haiku he managed to memorize while going to the mall at Cherry, but later says it calmly at Cherry's urging. They both talk about the intricateness of haikus. When Cherry tries to convince Mr. Fujiyama to keep his voice down, Mr. Fujiyama raises his voice again while pretending not to hear what Cherry said. Mr. Fujiyama is later picked up by his grandson, Toughboy, who was hunting down Beaver for vandalizing on his car. Toughboy calms down when he sees Mr. Fujiyama, who he calls "Akiko-san" but gets angry and blames Cherry for the vandalism when the latter tries to read what the graffiti says. Cherry denies any wrongdoing and Toughboy leaves with Mr. Fujiyama. Toughboy later tells Cherry that he should tell Beaver that he'll beat him up whenever he shows up. After his shift at the caring center, Cherry sees another graffiti, but it was a haiku instead of a catchphrase. Yuki, walking back home while on a path next to a rice field, rants about Cherry saying "braces" to her until realizing that her mask was gone. Yuki checks her smartphone only to see that it had a dictionary in it, and wonders who owns this phone, later realizing that she accidentally switched it with Cherry back at the mall. She worries about what happened to her lost phone and frantically continues running back home. Cherry climbs to the top of one of the mall's parking structure elevator shafts from the roof deck of the parking structure and finds a graffiti-ridden den belonging to a boy named Japan. Beaver tries to cheer him up with the now-severed head of the Hikarun cutout, impersonating her, as he got a fake Hikarun gacha toy back in the mall. But Japan ends the deal and gets angry with him for not bringing the cutout back intact. Beaver apologizes to Cherry for what happened earlier and Cherry tells Beaver that Toughboy was looking for him. Cherry later corrects Beaver, who is revealed to be subpar at writing Japanese because he wrote "hear" instead "here" in Japanese on the car. But Beaver insists so while Cherry ignores him. Yuki returns home and asks her sisters Marie and Julie to help her look for her phone. Back at the mall, Beaver continues writing haikus on the floor of their den. The haikus were revealed to have been made by Cherry. Beaver tells Japan that he is using Cherry's haikus to learn Japanese. But Japan tells Beaver that he speaks it just fine, the only problem he had was writing it. He also states his father can only write in Spanish. Cherry tells Beaver that he is tagging all of his own haikus all over the mall. Beaver also said to him that he also tagged more of his haikus on the apartment building. Cherry tells him to stop tagging property as he calls it embarrassing. But Beaver says to him that his rhymes sounded cool. Cherry later corrects him that they are haikus, not rhymes. Cherry tries to make a haiku out of his mouth while watching the evening sunset. Cherry pulls out his phone only to realize that he also switched it with someone else. That someone else was Yuki, the girl with braces he saw back at the mall. Meanwhile, back at Yuki's house Marie locates where Yuki's phone is on her computer. Yuki continues worrying about her phone, saying that she'll die. The location of the phone is finally found by Marie, located back in the mall. Yuki returns to the mall to pick up her phone. Julie tells her to call back instead so Yuki stays home. Beaver asks Cherry if he grabbed the wrong phone. Cherry tells Beaver he got the wrong phone when they ran into each other. Suddenly, Cherry gets a call from Yuki's phone, from Yuki's sister Julie. Cherry, indecisive, is told by Japan to pick up the call, but Cherry still couldn't pick up the call. Beaver ends up answering it for him. Yuki is the one talking on the phone. She tries talking to them, but they won't talk at all. Cherry, nervous to talk to another person, accidentally ends up starting a video call with them. Yuki is embarrassed again since she lacks her mask and puts one on to cover her buckteeth, but the camera was off the whole time until Marie turns it on. Both Yuki and Cherry see each other on the phone, but Japan interrupts their conversation by saying the online catchphrase of Yuki's alter-ego Smile, revealing that he is a Smile fan as well. Julie abruptly hangs up the call due to embarrassment. Julie wonders what was that while Marie finds out that the person who blocked the camera was one of their viewers. Julie says that the boy was too intense for her taste. Back at the mall, Japan screams with excitement that he talked with Smile on their call. Beaver asks who is Smile, and Japan replies that she is a famous high-school online influencer. Japan asks Cherry if he knows her, only for Cherry to reply with a no. Japan shouts at Cherry for missing out and yells that Smile has accumulated a million views on an online video app. Yuki calls Cherry again one more time, only for Cherry to get shy and nervous again. Cherry apologizes that what Japan said wasn't directed at her and apologizes sheepishly. The next day, Yuki returns to the mall with her sisters for dessert and get her phone back. The way Yuki eats in public, is that she covers her mouth to avoid showing her buckteeth. The sisters are puzzled. They ask why she is eating like that and ask whether it is a trend or not. Yuki tells them to mind their own business. Meanwhile, Cherry handles a poetry inspiration activity for the elderly with Ms. Miyuki. The workers clean up the care center while they are away. With the Obon break ending soon, the care center is forced to find a new part-timer to have at least four workers since Cherry will no longer work there starting on the 17th of August, the day of the Obon festival and end of the Obon break, leaving the care center with only three workers on the job by that day. The boss of the care center is worried when she sees this on the shift schedule. Meanwhile, the elderly in the poetry inspiration activity go around the mall to get inspiration for writing poems. Mr. Fujiyama, meanwhile, is standing on the roof deck of the parking structure still holding on to that same album. Julie, meanwhile, asks if Yuki being seen with fans is bad. Marie replies that she can become a "mecha girl" because it's popular but Yuki says no. Cut to a flashback of Yuki, her parents, and her sisters doing online videos at such a young age, Julie says her buck teeth was always her best feature since she was young. Yuki agrees reluctantly. Marie says it's cute, and the viewers loved it as well. Marie says her smile looks like a beaver but she says she isn't one. Julie's if she really liked her "beaver smile". Yuki agrees but adds a reason for getting embarrassed with it. Cut to another flashback, Yuki looks into the mirror now analyzing her buck teeth then frantically searches for disposable face masks to cover her buckteeth. Yuki later replies that her buckteeth is no longer cute anymore for her age. Julie calls her a teenager for saying that. Marie asks if she also hates her braces as well. Yuki agrees. Marie calls them cute and totally "mecha". Julie says that she understands that she hates how she looks after waking one morning. Marie asks Julie if it has happened to her as well. She replies yes. Cherry continues supervising the elderly across the mall until he stops and Yuki looks at him, with the sisters surprised seeing the guy who was on their call in-person. Yuki and her sisters wonder what he is doing with Ms. Miyuki, mistakenly saying that he is into more mature types. Then Julie assumes he has a girlfriend despite looking unsociable. Julie also assumes they are siblings but Marie says that they don't look related at all. Yuki runs toward Cherry, with her two sisters giggling about it. Cherry, sends a written haiku online and scrolls over other people's comments. His comment gets a like from a person named "Maria", and he gets twitchy. Ms. Miyuki asks the elderly to present the haiku they have written. Yuki and her two sisters are eavesdropping on the activity. Julie thinks Ms. Miyuki is a teacher and Marie wonders what are they doing. Mr. Fujiyama, gazes at the eavesdropping Yuki and her sisters, but he goes back to writing his haiku before submitting it to Ms. Miyuki, who would recite the poems. When Ms. Miyuki proceeds to the next poem, she calls Cherry, as it is his haiku. Unbeknownst to Cherry, Ms. Miyuki had the paper strip upside-down and tells Cherry to recite his own haiku for them. Cherry is shocked. Ms. Miyuki interprets his reaction as a no but Cherry replies nervously that reading in front of people is not really his style since he is shy. Ms. Miyuki encourages him and he turns red when all of the elderly agree, sighing. Ms. Miyuki encourages him to read his haiku to him with his wonderful voice. Cherry looks toward Mr. Fujiyama and gulps. Cherry tries his best read his haiku as much as he can. The elderly people couldn't really listen. Ms. Miyuki encourages Cherry to say it a bit louder. Cherry struggles until he takes a deep breath and reads his own haiku at a tone which the elderly people can finally hear him. They applaud him for trying his best. Meanwhile, Yuki and her two sisters are still eavesdropping on Cherry. Cherry says to the elderly that haiku is a written art form, meaning it doesn't have to be read aloud. Ms. Miyuki agrees. Ms. Miyuki says that some scenes can only be conveyed when read aloud. Cherry replies that it still gets across even without being read aloud. Suddenly, Mr. Fujiyama yells another haiku, much to the surprise of the others and refers to the girl in the mask who is eavesdropping on them then repeats it in a calm voice. The girls suddenly start panicking and Cherry gazes at them before they calm down. Outside the mall, Cherry and Yuki walk home together on the path next to the rice field with Yuki asking whether he is a year older than her. Cherry replies thinking that he, himself is a year older than her. Yuki finally sees why he is named Cherry, as in cherry blossoms translated from their Japanese word, "sakura". He replies, thinking Cherry is a cute name. Yuki doesn't know whether to call him Mr. Cherry or just Cherry. Yuki asks what he is listening to. Cherry, surprised, replies by saying he's always disliked loud sounds, and is not actually listening to anything, using the headphones as an improvised earplug to get past people who want to talk to him. Yuki is impressed by how ingenious he is regarding his shyness. They continue walking and Cherry starts another conversation with Yuki asking why is there a dictionary attached to his phone. Cherry says it is a saijiki, a dictionary used for writing haikus. He also says there is an app version as well but he says he prefers the book more. He also says haikus help him express things in words better. He also says that he is no good at reading in front of other people. He also says he sometimes uploads his own haikus online. Yuki replies that it all makes sense to her that his haikus will be looked at more. Cherry continues scrolling over his haikus that were uploaded online, having lesser followers than Smile herself. When Cherry presses the number of his followers he sees Japan and Beaver, who was revealed to be fluent in the Spanish language, and "Maria", who likes cute things. Depressed at having not a lot of friends, he is disappointed that not many people read his haikus. Yuki asks whether they comes out easily with Cherry replying that they mostly come out on good days. Yuki tells Cherry to make a haiku now but Cherry is somewhat shocked that he has to write another one. Yuki apologizes that she was a being a little too pushy when she said that. With night falling upon them, Cherry writes another haiku inspired by the lights that have already lit up. Though Cherry is quite reluctant to continue, he continues with the sunset he saw yesterday. He turns red with nervousness and flinches. Yuki later recites the haiku, relieving Cherry. She asks about the meaning of the first stanza, of lights in the summer night. Cherry replies that it is about lights and that it is a summer kigo, meaning seasonal word. Reciting the haiku again, Yuki calls it cute, much to Cherry's surprise. She also says that a part of the haiku and his voice is cute. Cherry takes off his headphones and questions Yuki about his voice. Yuki replies that it is cute as well, for no reason whatsoever. Cherry, in his apartment, wonders about what Yuki meant when she called his voice cute. Cherry continues scrolling over his phone then leaves it on his bed to show the haiku Yuki requested for. He stands up and roams around his room, and takes a folded moving box, a toolbox, and his daruma and starts packing up long before the day he'll move out. Cherry's mom is cooking for dinner and hurts her back when she tries to reach for something. Her husband returns home. Cherry asks his dad whether he can put the box over there, and his dad agrees. The dad questions if it is little too early to start packing, saying that they'll not be moving until next month. The mom says they are better off packing early rather than running around last-minute anyway. The dad asks his wife how's her back, with the wife replying that it still hurts a bit. The husband tells her not to push herself because he'll help with the chores anyway, much to the wife's relief.